José Bedia “Watering Past Ground”

José Bedia is one of the most prominent Cuban artists in the contemporary art world. Major influences in his work include the Afro-Cuban religion Palo Monte, which he studied in Cuba, and the spirituality of the American Indians, which he began to explore after coming to America. Bedia’s works are in the permanent collections of several museums around the world such as, Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York), Bacardi Art Foundation (Miami), Birmingham Museum of Art (Alabama), Pérez Art Museum (Miami), Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Caracas), Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Havana), Indianapolis Museum of Art, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (MARCO) (Monterrey, Mexico), Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst (Aachen, Germany), The Rodríguez Collection (Miami), and Museum of Modern Art (New York), among others.

The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami- Dade County announces the next installment of its VISUALMIAMI@ARSHT program with works by Miami-based artist José Bedia. The solo exhibition, titled “Watering Past Ground,” features two original works on paper and eight original paintings on canvas, which are on display in the lobby and first tier of the Knight Concert Hall through March 2019.
José Bedia was born in Cuba, emigrated in 1991 to Mexico and settled in 1993 in Miami, where he currently resides. His relationship with the Arsht Center began when Miami-Dade County Art in Public Places commissioned him to create the etched balcony railings and terrazzo floor murals in both the Ziff Ballet Opera House and Knight Concert Hall – now integral visual elements of the Center.
“Watering Past Ground” complements Bedia’s prior artistic collaborations with the Arsht Center and includes the first public exhibition of four new works in a new series of paintings that explore two-dimensional and three-dimensional juxtapositions within irregularly-shaped, large canvases.